52" vs. 60" productivity

[bjm95]

After riding some other mowers, I painfully realized how slow my 52" toro Z master is. I am thinking of buying a 60" Cheetah. Not only for speed but size as well. We cut the full range of properties small to large. I know there will be a increase but wondering if it will justify the payment for the Cheetah at about $200 a month.

Has anyone recently gone through this and have made the jump to the faster, bigger mower? If so, has the mower paid for itself?

Thanks in advance.

[djagusch]

It depends all on your accounts. But I would say you will see 20% increase in productivity on cut swath and speed easily.

[fastbs]

This may not be a lot of help but sounds like a similar situation.
Late last year I took my 19hp 52" bobcat procat in for a miss which ended up being a coil, had about 250 hours on it. While at the shop started drooling over a 34hp (now rated 31hp kawi) 61" predator pro bobcat. After crunching all the numbers I ended up hauling the predator pro home a couple days later. This was not a business smart purchase and I already knew that but I just wanted it.
This has made me realize that I should have got a 60" a couple mowers ago and I've really enjoyed the bigger mower, no regrets here.
If you can comfortably afford it, you will be very happy with the bigger mower.
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[Snyder's Lawn Inc]

Originally Posted by bjm95

After riding some other mowers, I painfully realized how slow my 52" toro Z master is. I am thinking of buying a 60" Cheetah. Not only for speed but size as well. We cut the full range of properties small to large. I know there will be a increase but wondering if it will justify the payment for the Cheetah at about $200 a month.

Has anyone recently gone through this and have made the jump to the faster, bigger mower? If so, has the mower paid for itself?

Thanks in advance.

Yes I went from 50s to 60s and then to 72
Reason
Lawns got bigger
More throat cutters on Res lawns
Time is money
Bigger mower will speed up the time spent in a lawn
Sample
I have soccer field I mow with 60'' takes 45mins same field with my 72'' takes about 30mins
I have a 50'' and somedays it gets used in same lawns that are to small for 60''
I have 5 60'' mowers and 3 72'' mowers and the 1 50''
The mowers has paid for there self few times
There dated from1988 ,92,95,98,01,05,06,10,11 ones I sent down road was 1985 and 2007

[Mowerboy04]

i have 3 mowers 48"-60" at first i was only running a 48" and 60" it took us 6 days to mow our 120 lawns, i picked up a 60" and knocked 2 days off my mowing!! not only is the cut bigger but the gound speed is faster to.

[herler]

There's no justifying payments on business equipment, you save your money and pay for it cash, that's how it's done.

[bjm95]

Great advice, thanks! Im pretty sure I will pull the trigger.

[bjm95]

Originally Posted by herler

There's no justifying payments on business equipment, you save your money and pay for it cash, that's how it's done.

Even if it's 0% interest??

[scotts lawn care]

60" are good on all accounts - even small lawns as long as your careful with the larger deck.
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[32vld]

Originally Posted by bjm95

Even if it's 0% interest??

Yes even at 0%.

0% loans are for 2-3 years which makes the monthly payments higher over a 5 year 5% loan. About $425 a month for 2 year 0% or $150 a month for 5% 5 year.

Then what happens if 5 customers drop dead from old age (I hope very old age) 5 customers move, then economy goes from bad to worse and you loose 5 more customers are you going to be able to still make payments or are you going to make the repo man some money?

Now if I had that Ten Grand sitting in the bank I would take the 0% loan because if something was to cause me to miss a payment the money would be there for a safety net. No repo. No lose of credit rating.